Citizen Hearst

Although it opens with a biography of the ambitious news baron William Randolph Hearst, whose early acquisition of the San Francisco Examiner spearheaded an ascent in the newspaper business and public life (recognizing the popular appeal of cartoon strips is said to be just one of his visionary achievements), this is not another recap of how the formidable media maven inspired the Orson Welles classic Citizen Kane (Charles Foster Kane was actually based on several press lords, with Hearst being the most recognizable). Instead, most of filmmaker Leslie Iwerks' documentary lionizes the man in terms of his posthumous legacy: the continuing Hearst empire of periodicals and news outlets that includes the saucy women's magazine Cosmopolitan, lauded for breaking censorship boundaries and coining phrases such as "vajazzle"; A&E Network, airing shows such as Dog the Bounty Hunter and Growing Up Gotti that helped carve a niche for reality-TV; ESPN, whose reporters, we are told, did honor to their profession by risking jail for exposing widespread steroid use by professional athletes; and Oprah Winfrey, whose relationship with the Hearst Corporation was the key to cross-platform success. Along the way, Citizen Hearst often feels like an up-tempo, in-house corporate profile (even fawning over the business offices), breezily touching on the shaping of modern popular culture, fashion, comics, and mass-media through interviews with Winfrey, Dan Rather, Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan, and Leonard Maltin, among others. A strong optional purchase. [Note: this is also available with public performance rights for $295 from www.citizenhearst.com/education.] Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)